The comic perils of dating a type-B

He’s the type of guy who leaves his girlfriend in his car so that he doesn’t have to pay the on-street parking fee. His idea of a gift is a walkie-talkie set, so he can reach her at his convenience as quickly as possible. He shops for what he wants first, but makes her pay. Then he drives her crazy by asking her ever so innocently, “Should we break it off, then?”
He might be a jerk, and she might be a patsy for staying with him. But that’s because he has blood type B and she’s type A, according to Chae-yeong (Shin Yi), a dating consultant in the movie “My Boyfriend Is Type-B.”
A strong believer in the blood type theory, which says that one’s blood type determines one’s personality, Chae-yeong goes on with her wacky logic about how blood type can have an effect on a person’s love life.
Her point is that a type-B male is conceited, stubborn and absolutely useless as a boyfriend, especially when the female is timid and obedient, like Ha-mi (Han Ji-hye), who has blood type A.
The film, which opens today, is a typical love story about two very different young people finding out slowly that they are actually in love. But the director, Choi Seok-won, introduces actor Lee Dong Gun as a romantic macho type (he doesn’t want to be told what to do but still sings a love serenade to his girlfriend), while using the recent blood-type craze to develop the film’s whimsical plot.
These elements have charmed Japanese movie distributors. Before the new film was released in Korea, Nippon Herald Film bought the film with a minimum guarantee of $1.5 million.
“Lee Dong Gun is gaining popularity as a new Korean idol in Japan, where issues involving blood type theories have been very familiar and popular,” said Mona Jin, assistant marketing manager of Cinema Zenith, a producer of “My Boyfriend Is Type-B.”
“Japanese distributors were intrigued ever since the screenplay was started two years ago,” she said.
Several Japanese fans were at the movie’s premiere last week in Seoul. Noriko Aeoki, from Osaka, said she came with about 10 other people who wanted to see Lee Dong Gun and Han Ji-hye, who appeared together at a press meeting after the screening.
Ms. Han said Ha-mi did portray ― in a much-exaggerated way ― how she would act in front of the opposite sex. “Could it be because I am a blood type-A person in real life as well?” she asked with a laugh.
Lee Dong Gun was more serious when he said he did not want to judge a person solely by blood type. “It was fun, acting as a completely different person from myself. But I honestly don’t think blood type could really matter [when dating],” he said, adding that he was actually a “helpless” type A.
The director said his idea was to maximize the comic effect by using the blood type theory. “I thought about making a horror movie about a man with blood type B. But that would have been too odd, don’t you think?”

by Lee Min-a